Rider Hotel President Tim Dixon said then the hotel was performing well, but Miami-based commercial real estate lender Rialto Capital had refused to allow Rider Hotel to use the proceeds from a U.S. Small Business Administration loan. Dixon said that triggered a foreclosure suit filed against Rider Hotel in 2021 by a Rialto affiliate, which services the hotel's loan. The suit is still pending, but a sheriff's auction scheduled for October has apparently been canceled. A status conference on the suit is scheduled for January.
Meanwhile, federal court records show Rider Hotel's Chapter 11 bankruptcy is waiting to be discharged. A Rialto representative didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Dixon said Thursday the Iron Horse continues to operate. He praised the hotel's 100 employees. "I'm proud of those people," Dixon told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "They all stuck it out." This isn't the Iron Horse's first high-profile court dispute.
Aparium denied those claims and said Dixon ignored its warning to reinvest profits and update the hotel's concept amid increasing competition. The suit was settled out of court in 2021. The Iron Horse, located near the Harley-Davidson Museum and known for its biker-friendly atmosphere, opened in 2008 within a historic former industrial building that Dixon redeveloped. Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. In 2019, Rider Hotel sued Chicago-based Aparium Hotel Group LLC over claims that Aparium mismanaged the hotel.
